new book! home bar guide to tropical cocktails

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER FROM KORERO PRESS
THE HOME BAR GUIDE TO TROPICAL COCKTAILS
A SPIRITED JOURNEY THROUGH SUBURBIA'S HIDDEN TIKI TEMPLES!

https://www.amazon.com/Home-Bar-Guide-Tropical-Cocktails/dp/0993337449

A BOOK BY KELLY HIPHIPAHULA REILLY & TRADER TOM MORGAN
FORWARD BY SVEN KIRSTEN (BOOK OF TIKI, TIKI MODERN, TIKI POP, ART OF TIKI)
ILLUSTRATIONS BY Tiki tOny, DOUG HORNE & JAKE GEIGER

Come and explore suburbia’s hidden tiki temples with Kelly and Tom. Sample over 150 of their original tropical cocktails! These drinks chronicle the time spent bartending at home tiki bars during the rise of the craft cocktail revolution. Inside are riffs on tropical classics and original concoctions crowd-tested at home bars across the USA. You’ll also find recipes for home-made syrups including ancho chilli, lemongrass, sesame, hibiscus, and more. The book features full-page cocktail photos, artwork by Tiki Tony, and glamour shots of some of the coolest home tiki bars around. This guide is proof that you don’t have to go very far to sample the best tropical drinks in town. Belly up to your basement Bali Hai, Rumpus Room, or backyard Bora-Bora and let us help you mix a tropical vacation!

https://www.amazon.com/Home-Bar-Guide-Tropical-Cocktails/dp/0993337449

Very cool Kelly!

Oh, yeah: this looks exciting. I think I'll need to add this to my library.

Or maybe if I'm a good little boy, and I drop enough hints, someone will preorder it for me for Christmas....

I just ordered (ok, pre-ordered) a copy. I can't wait to dig into it!

Thanks Kelly and Tom!

kevin

The book release party is almost here.

Looking forward to seeing everybody!

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=53234&forum=17&3

If you missed us at our first book signing, we'll be back with more books at the Tonga Hut Parking Lot Sale & Art Show this next Sunday:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=53238&forum=17&2

The official book website is up which will list upcoming events and other goodies we have in the works.

Check it out at https://tropical-cocktails.com/?fbclid=IwAR1owFOy0B7MHCzmqfRuFHiQsec3JXCNekBIGezl23s2dW9pSpMBiM8qC3I

Just listened to the February 9 episode of Cocktail Nation; good interview about the book, plus a shoutout for Tiki Central:

https://cocktailnation.podbean.com/e/cocktail-nation-512-tropical-cocktails/?fbclid=IwAR26O76MWEqHFAhQIl8TSQGvjDRgJkBoqZUXamweljG68D3gKhrS1ZwnJEg

Has anyone who bought the book mixed any of the cocktails? Are they any good? After listening to the "5 Minutes of Rum" interview, the authors SEEM to have a "NO BIG DEAL" attitude toward the ingredients they recommend. That leads me to believe they have not mixed and quality tested each of the 150 recipes they included.

I've got the book and have tried several of the recipes, all good. The front section also has lots of great pictures of home Tiki bars. From what I understand, these recipes were developed and tested over several years of both commercial and home bar service. If they come off a little cavalier about the ingredients, I think it is an acknowledgement that not everyone is going to use the exact ingredients they specify, that not every Mai Tai you mix is going to be a "$100 Mai Tai". There is a very helpful table in the back that categorizes rums and list several rums in each category by relative price. This lets you mix the recipes by your budget and availability. Of course a cocktail mixed with $900 1952 Vintage Martinique Agricole Rhum Clement is probably going to be better than one mixed with $30 Rhum J.M. Gold but at least you have options

On 2019-05-29 11:12, therumtrader wrote:
Has anyone who bought the book mixed any of the cocktails? Are they any good? After listening to the "5 Minutes of Rum" interview, the authors SEEM to have a "NO BIG DEAL" attitude toward the ingredients they recommend. That leads me to believe they have not mixed and quality tested each of the 150 recipes they included.

I didn't get a "no big deal" vibe at all. I got the impression they worked with wildly varying ingredients available to craft solid cocktails. For instance, they talk about making their own passion fruit syrup, but use Torani for one particular recipe not because it is a good passion fruit syrup (it isn't) but because it has a unique flavor that works in that particular recipes. They were very clear about the fact that subbing ingredients would likely impact the flavor profile for good or ill. At the same time, they didn't discourage such experimentation. I thought them quite clear on their positions.

On 2019-05-29 11:12, therumtrader wrote:
Has anyone who bought the book mixed any of the cocktails? Are they any good? After listening to the "5 Minutes of Rum" interview, the authors SEEM to have a "NO BIG DEAL" attitude toward the ingredients they recommend. That leads me to believe they have not mixed and quality tested each of the 150 recipes they included.

I'll start with outlining my biases, so you know where I'm coming from. :) The conversation was on my podcast, I consider both Kelly and Tom to be my friends, and the Rumpus Room specifically was very formative to my development as a home bartender (and very occasional paid bartender).

All that said, I've both mixed and been served many of the cocktails in the book. Quite a few have been on the menu at the Tonga Hut and other bars over the years. Start with a Shaka Hula Bossa Nova or Trader Tom's Wayward Rum Barrel and I don't think you'll be disappointed.

The spirt of the cocktails (pun kinda intended) is directly influenced by underground home tiki bars and the community that springs up around them. For those that regularly host sizable groups of friends in their home bar, they depend on contributions from the community in most cases. Sure, have a one-off party and pay the tab, but if you're not independently wealthy, a weekly/bi-weekly event means everyone is coming with something to contribute: ice, juice, snacks, and rum. And when someone shows up with a bottle of something, be it a black pepper syrup or an unexpected spirit they found and wanted to bring over, part of the fun is trying out new formulations to incorporate those contributions.

That's the context for the "parts lists" for some of the cocktails. As Kelly will say, you can always "go up" - drop in the Koloa Coconut for the Cruzan Coconut if you desire. These formulations came from experimentation in home bars using ingredients on hand but careful considered to develop a flavor profile. I'm confident in saying that the recipes have been mixed and tested in the manner they're presented but Kelly and Tom encourage readers to experiment based on what they can do. Everyone's home bar starts with just a few bottles.

Hope that helps provide more background on the conversation and the recipes, at least from my perspective.

kevin

Vinyl Rewind (Mixing With The Geek) just released a video of us mixing up a Shaka Hula Bossa Nova Cocktail.

We had a lot of fun! Check it out. Might be some more in the works as well...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Kw9_NP3ep8&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR0tifWHO_3XBrIPoiYRs5pmkkSu8T6fKESOzr29Kt1kLniQyjYliUMt--E

Had another visit with Vinyl Rewind. This time mixing up an El Korero. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLQa_NBnIuY&fbclid=IwAR1WXXgQcGneX9mBhSfU6HnLJk1BwFkVB3pSKgHyIdZ_l1C5z0Z9To2pr4Y